Download ANXIETY DISORDERS I-Lecture 10 Anxiety disorder is the most

ANXIETY DISORDERS I-Lecture 10
Anxiety disorder is the most complex and mysterious disorder. Have you ever experienced
anxiety?
Do you feel anxious when you have an exam or a test? I feel anxious going to a hospital for a
checkup?
My friend experiences anxiety visiting his dentist?
My student reports anxiety related to attending his sick mother at an intensive
care unit. So what is anxiety?
Anxiety is a mood- state, characterized by marked negative affect, bodily symptoms of tension,
restlessness and apprehension about future.
• Anxiety is very hard to study. In humans a sense of uneasiness, looking worried and
anxious.
• The physiological response of anxiety is reflected in increased heart beat and muscle
tension.
• Anxiety is not pleasant, it is some unpleasant thing, usually students say they can do
well on test if they have no examination anxiety.
• But moderate amount of anxiety is needed for optimal performance of people
• Moderate anxiety creates a feeling of preparation in people
• So anxiety is future oriented mood state
• So when a student says that I better study hard for my examination, so as to respond
adequately to difficult questions of the exam as well.
• What is anxiety?
• Is it that anxiety, fear and panic are the same phenomena? So let us explore
• Anxiety , fear and panic
• Anxiety is mood state characterized negative affect, tension, apprehension of future.
• Fear is an immediate alarm reaction to danger. It protects us by activating a massive
response
• In fear there is an increased heart beat, blood pressure and subjective feeling of
escape of an individual from danger or terror, so either flight from or to fight the enemy.
• In fear an individual has fight- flight response or reaction situation.
• Panic is an abrupt experience of intense fear or acute discomfort accompanied
by physical symptoms of heart palpitations, chest pains, shortness of breath and
dizziness.
• Three basic types of panic attacks
• 1-Situationally bound: when you know you are afraid of high places or afraid of
driving over long bridges you have situation bound panic disorder (cued).
• 2- Unexpected: you may experience an unexpected panic attack disorder (uncued).
• 3-Situationally predisposed: you are more likely to have a panic attack where you had
before. Both 1 and 2 are included.
• Panic and anxiety combine to form different anxiety disorders
• 1- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• 2- panic with agoraphobia
• 3-Specific phobia
• 4- Social phobia
• 5-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• 6-Obessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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•
•
•
•
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is unfocused, prolonged anxiety and worry.
Anxiety is about minor every day events
Genetics and psychological factors responsible for GAD.
Panic with and without agoraphobia
• It is fear and avoidance of situations considered to be safe Anxiety is focused on next
panic attack.
• Agoraphobia is marketplace or public place phobia.
• In Specific phobia a person avoids specific situations that produce severe anxiety or
panic.
• Social phobias is fear of being around others, particularly to be in situations that call for
some kind of performance in front of other people e.g. meeting strangers in part
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) it focuses on avoiding thoughts or images of
some past traumatic experiences
• The PTSD is a traumatic experience and the intensity of the experience seems to be a
factor in development.
• Example the 8th October 2005, earthquake affected of our country show symptoms of
PTSD.
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) it focuses on avoiding frightening or intrusive
thoughts (obsessive)
• Leading to ritualistic behaviors (compulsions)
• Washing and checking of locks, doors.
• Influences in anxiety disorders
• Biological influences
• Behavioral influences
• Social influences
• Emotional and cognitive influences
• Treatments for anxiety disorders
• 1- drug therapy
• 2-Cognitive – behavioral therapy
• 3-Other treatments
• Taken together, the various forms of anxiety disorders—including phobias,
obsessions, compulsions, and extreme worry—represent the most common type of
abnormal behavior.
• Anxiety disorders share several important similarities with mood disorders.
• From a descriptive point of view, both categories are defined in terms of negative
emotional responses.
• Stressful life events seem to play a role in the onset of both depression and anxiety.
• Cognitive factors are also important in both types of problems.
• From a biological point of view, certain brain regions and a number of
neurotransmitters are involved in the etiology of anxiety disorders as well as mood
disorders.
• People with anxiety disorders share a preoccupation with, or persistent avoidance of,
thoughts or situations that provoke fear or anxiety.
• Anxiety disorders frequently have a negative impact on various aspects of a person’s life.
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•
•
•
Anxious mood is often defined in contrast to the specific emotion of fear, which is
more easily understood.
Fear is experienced in the face of real, immediate danger.
In contrast to fear, anxiety involves a more general or diffuses emotional reaction—
beyond simple fear—that is out of proportion to threats from the environment.
•
Rather than being directed toward the person’s present circumstances, anxiety is
associated with the anticipation of future problems.
• Anxiety can be adaptive at low levels, because it serves as a signal that the person must
prepare for an upcoming event.
• An anxious mood is often associated with pessimistic thoughts and feelings.
• The person’s attention turns inward, focusing on negative emotions and self-evaluation
rather than on the organization or rehearsal of adaptive responses that might be useful in
coping with negative
events.
Excessive Worry
•
Worrying is a cognitive activity that is associated with anxiety.
•
Worry can be defined as a relatively uncontrollable sequence of
negative, emotional thoughts that are concerned with possible future threats or danger.
• Worriers are preoccupied with “self-talk” rather than unpleasant visual images.
•
•
•
The distinction between pathological and normal worry hinges on quantity—
how often the person worries and about how many different topics the person
worries.
It also depends on the quality of worrisome thought.
Excessive worriers are more likely than other people to report that the content
of their thoughts is negative, that they have less control over the content and
direction of their thoughts, and that in comparison to other adults, their worries
are less realistic.
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Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety Disorder
Generalized anxiety
disorder
(GAD)
Specific phobia
(sometimes called simple
phobia)
Social phobia
Description and Symptoms
Excessive anxiety and worry that occur on most days for a period of six
months about events ad activities such as work or school; symptoms
include restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle
Persistent, excessive, and unrealistic fear triggered by the presence of a
tension, and sleep disturbance.
particular situation or object.
Persistent and marked fear of one or more social or performance situations.
The fear of experiencing the symptoms of fear and the fear of being in
places from which escape might be difficult. (It is also possible to
experience agoraphobia without panic.)
Panic attack
A discrete period of intense fear or discomfort that appears abruptly
and unexpectedly and peaks within ten minutes; symptoms include
pounding heart, shaking, trembling, shortness of breath, sweating,
abdominal distress, lightheadedness, and fear of losing control. Panic
attacks
occurby
with
or without
agoraphobia.
ObsessiveMay
becan
defined
either
obsessive
or. compulsive symptoms; obsessions
compulsive disorder
are recurrent and persistent thoughts or images that cause distress and are
(OCD)
experienced as intrusive and inappropriate, and compulsions are repetitive
behaviors
that the
person feels
to perform.
Posttraumatic stress
The persistent
experiencing
of driven
a traumatic
event (e.g., in images or dreams)
disorder
and the avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma; symptoms
include sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, angry outbursts, or
(PTSD)
an
exaggerated
startle
Acute stress disorder
Resembles
PTSD,
but response
symptoms persist for at least two days but less
than
four
weeks from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Source: DSM-IV. Reprinted
with
permission
Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 1994 American Psychiatric Association
Agoraphobia
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Is it normal to be anxious?
Almost everyone can recall at least one episode of anxious arousal and fear
— an experience of worry tension, a racing heart, sweaty palms, or an upset
stomach. Indeed, anxiety and fear can serve
an adaptive function: Anxious arousal tells us to take special action, to fight
what is threatening us or to flee. The fact that most of us experience some
degree of anxiety suggests that is a part of normal functioning.
Is being entirely anxiety-free normal or even desirable?
If we are anxiety free are we better off?
The answer is no.
Very low levels of anxiety, like high levels, can be detrimental to performance:
With few exceptions, we perform best when we experience mild levels of anxiety.
Example when you have anxiety for your examination you will be pushed to study
otherwise you will not prepare for examination.
The Interaction of Person And Situation Anxiety
•
•
Does anxiety come entirely from within the person?
Is it the result of a chemical imbalance or of maladaptive thinking?
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•
Or is it caused by environmental conditions?
1-Biological causes
The areas of the brain are affected by different neurotransmitter systems, some of which, in
turn, play an important role in the experience of fear and anxiety, and the way these events are
interpreted by the person is important in the shaping of anxiety disorders. A model of anxiety
disorders must include biological vulnerabilities that affect arousal and activation in interaction
with personal, psychological, and environmental characteristics.
2-The diathesis-stress model, is one offshoot of this interactional perspective, which holds
that individual dispositions (diathesis) and situational influences (such as stress) interact
to create and maintain psychological disorders (Magnusson & Ohman, 1987).
Theories about Anxiety Disorders
Each of the following theoretical perspectives — biological, cognitive, behavioral, and
psychodynamic — has generated extensive literature on anxiety and the development of
anxiety disorders. In addition to the interactional (diathesis-stress) perspective just described,
we consider how these four major perspectives explain anxiety and anxiety disorders.
Biological Theories
Anxiety and the anxiety disorders are often linked to the body’s physical systems of arousal. In
times of heightened distress, our bodies react. When we turn a corner in our neighborhood and
see the smoke of a burning home, when we receive a phone call from a hospital late in the
evening, or when we see but can’t stop a toddler who is wandering in a busy parking lot, our
bodies do indeed react.
The autonomic nervous system carries messages between the brain and major organs of the
body — the heart, stomach, and adrenal glands. In turn, the adrenal glands release a hormone,
adrenaline that activates this system. When signals of distress are legitimate, adrenaline
galvanizes the individual to action. In the absence of crisis, however excessive adrenaline can
cause anxious distress.
The biological perspective considers the roles of genetic and constitutional factors, biological
reactivity, endocrinological and neurotransmitter factors, and brain anatomy and functioning in
the development of anxiety and anxiety disorders.
The term selective association accounts for the finding that humans are apparently more easily
conditioned to some stimuli than to others.
Based on this, one hypothesis holds that humans and many animals learn fears. Phobias may be
learned. Medications for Anxiety Disorders. Because anxiety symptoms often co-occur with
depression, it should not be surprising that some of the antidepressants also reduce anxiety.
Panic disorders, in particular, respond relatively well to antidepressants. According to one
published report,
60 to 90 percent of such patients display significant improvements when treated with
antidepressants (see also Ballenger, Burrows & Dupont, 1988).
In some cases of posttraumatic stress disorder, researchers have claimed that antidepressants are
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effective as well (Davidson et al., 1990).
Cognitive Causes The basic idea underlying cognitive approaches is that anxiety results when
we try to understand the events and experiences that we are a part of in distorted irrational ways.
Ellis posited that people with unhealthy emotional lives are also victims of cognitive
irrationality — they view the world based on self- defeating assumptions.
1-To become afraid on a
Examples
camping trip when you are familiar with the territory of your camping trip, is an irrational fear.
2-To be unwilling to participate in a new game for fear that you won’t be the absolute best
player is irrational.
Dog lovers, when approached by a dog, might perceive the dog in any of several ways —
in terms of attractiveness, breed, grooming, or posture. But people with a dog phobia (an
excessive fear of dogs) have a narrow and negative view of dogs, seeing them in terms of their
size and ferocity. They never see the dog’s tail wagging; they see only teeth (Landau, 1980)
Consider the following example of cognitive influences in the experience of deleterious
anxiety. Sam is waiting for his mother to pick him up after school. Most of the other children
have already gone home. Sam thinks to himself, “Why is she late?” In itself, this thought is not
detrimental; many children in the same situation might ask themselves the same question and
he continues to worry. Rather than using the time to complete a homework assignment or talk
with friends or teachers, the anxious youngster engages in task- irrelevant thought. He may
question why she is late and respond by himself due to the fact she does not love me while
the fact is she is late due to traffic block or car trouble.
Anxiety disorders have multiple causes and multiple expressions. As we discussed, several
forces interact in the development of disorders of anxiety, and not all expressions of these
disorders are the same. Indeed, several different types of anxiety disorder appear in
contemporary classification schemes.
Behavioral Causes
Behavioral explanations of anxiety emphasize the processes involved in the acquisition of
anxiety responses. Behaviorists hold that persons who suffer distressing levels of anxiety have
learned to behave in an anxious manner through classical conditioning, operant conditioning, or
modeling.
Modeling, also called observational learning, is another behavioral explanation for anxiety
responses. Unlike conditioning, modeling produces learning without personal experience with a
situation or object. Thus, an individual can develop an emotional response after watching
someone else experience an aversive emotional condition.
Example.An adolescent boy observed the adolescent girl receive the ridicule from peers might stay
away from those same peers hoping to avoid similar teasing and rejection. He didn’t experience
the rejection directly, but he observed it and learned to avoid it from the vicarious experience.
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Therapies Procedures such as
1-Systematic Desensitization and exposure treatments are the treatment of specific anxiety
disorders these behavioral techniques typically emphasize and focus on the client’s cognitive
and behavioral functioning.
2- Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy the focus is on modifying the irrational, illogical
belief system.
3-A paradoxical intervention encourages the client to intend or wish for exactly
what is feared.
Example I think I will faint in the examination hall, you try hard to faint in the
examination hall. The person does not faint.
The paradoxical therapists believe that people’s attempts to solve their problems often
cause them to
maintain the very problems they are trying to solve. The paradoxical therapist thus provides
directives that are designed to help clients give up their “problem- maintaining solutions”.
ANXIETY DISORDERS
II
Before GAD can be diagnosed, several criteria must be met. According to DSM-IV, the
excessive and unrealistic anxiety and worry must be present for a minimum of six months;
impulses must be experienced as difficult to control; and they must be associated with at least
three of the following symptoms:
• Restlessness, feeling on the edge
• Easily fatigued
• Difficulty in concentrating or mind going blank
• Irritability
• Muscle tension
• Sleep disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless and unsatisfying sleep)
• Although 98.6 percent of GAD patients meet the criterion of three out of six
symptoms, a large percentage of patients with other anxiety disorders also fulfill this
criterion. Raising the criterion to four or more symptoms increases diagnostic accuracy.
Treating GAD
Borkovec and his colleagues (1983) have provided some interesting information about the
ability of clients to learn how to manage their worrying.
In one study clients reported that worry consumed approximately 50 percent of each day and
caused those major problems. During an intervention, the clients participated in a program that
included (1) establishing a specified half-hour period (same place, same time) for daily
worrying, (2) identifying negative thoughts and task- relevant thoughts, (3) postponing
worrying until the allotted time, and (4), at the time assigned for worrying, engaging in intense
worry and problem solving. After four weeks, the treated subjects showed a reduction in the
percentage of time they spent worrying.
Apparently, providing a time and place for worrying (stimulus control) reduces its
detrimental effects.
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Phobic disorders are tied to specific objects or situations. Phobias are intense, recurrent, and
irrational fears that are disproportionate to the actual situation. Claustrophobia, the fear of
closed spaces, is a common example of a phobia. Small room or lift etc.
Most of us have some discomfort or fear associated with fire, disease, snakes, and being in
small and enclosed places. Youngsters have been known to avoid walking near an abandoned
“haunted house,” and college students may avoid biology courses because they are uneasy
about the blood that is rumored to be a part of the lab work. To a degree, these fears are rational
but Phobic reactions are irrational.
Phobias involve specifiable fear
reactions —
Clients with phobias recognize that their fears are excessive and unreasonable, and they work
to avoid the phobic stimulus.
Symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, stomach pains, and other general physical
complaints are often reported in association with phobias. Lack of self-confidence and mild
depression may also accompany phobic conditions. Fainting has been reported in phobic
exposed to the feared situation or object (such as the sight of blood), but these reports are not as
prevalent as once thought.
Some phobias, such as those provoked by small animals, are present in early childhood,
but phobic disorders typically begin in adolescence or early adulthood.
Who Is Affected with Phobias? Phobic disorders are the most common of the anxiety
disorders, with a lifetime prevalence of 14.2 percent of the population (Eaton, Dryman &
Weissman, 1991).
Using current diagnostic criteria, and sampling from more than eight thousand people from
non- institutional households, Magee and associates (1996) reported lifetime prevalence of 13.3
percent for social phobia, 11.3 percent for specific phobia, and 6.7 percent for agoraphobia.
Specific (Simple) Phobias
Specific phobias are pathological (excessive and
unrealistic) fears of specific animals, objects, or situations.
Common examples include phobias of the needles, elevators, dogs, snakes, storms, blood,
dentists, and tightly enclosed spaces although the phobic individual may be reasonably well
adjusted when not directly faced by the phobic stimulus, he or she experiences anticipatory
anxiety when aware of an impending situation that could force a confrontation with the object
of fear. When the phobic individual is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus, there is almost
invariably an intense and immediate anxiety response.
For example, the person with needle phobia who comes in contact with a needle will report
sweating, difficulty breathing, and a racing heart. The phobic stimulus is viewed as powerful
indeed, as this example illustrates. In an experiment conducted in the Netherlands. Women with
phobias were shown various, slides of phobic stimuli and given very mild shock. The
researchers concluded that because phobic stimuli cause such discomfort, they are routinely
avoided rather than faced directly and endured.
Social Phobias
It refers to being asked to perform before an audience will produce some anxiety in almost
all of us. The thought of having nothing to say or of saying something inappropriate causes us
to become self-conscious and nervous. These are normal, rational fears. Social phobias,
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however, involve a persistent fear of being in a social situation in which one is exposed to
scrutiny by others and a related fear of acting in a way that will be humiliating or embarrassing.
As self-focus increases, so does the anticipation of anxiety (Woody, 1996). Phobic and nonphobic individuals have comparable concerns, but the intensity, extremeness, and
irrationality of the reactions of social phobic set them apart from their non-phobic counterparts.
Examples of social phobias include irrational reactions to eating in public places, using public
restrooms, or speaking in front of large groups of people. Like the specific phobic, the social
phobic experiences marked anxiety when anticipating the phobic situation and therefore usually
avoids it. This avoidance interferes with the person’s daily routine and can potentially ruin his or
her career.
Agoraphobia
The term agoraphobia, which is derived from the Greek word agora, meaning marketplace,
was originally used to refer to a pathological fear of open or public places.
At present, agoraphobia is considered a fear of being alone or of being in public places where
escape is difficult or where help is not readily available in case of a panic attack that the person
fears would be overwhelming. The agoraphobic might experience intense fear in shopping
malls during the holidays, in crowds at concerts or sports events, and in tunnels, bridges, or in
public transport.
Agoraphobia also occurs within an interrelated and overlapping cluster of phobias, such as a
phobia of cars, buses, planes, and trains. As a result of agoraphobia, the sufferer restricts
travel or requires a companion when away from home.
Label
Fear
Agoraphobia
Open places
Aichmophobia
Pointed objects
Algophobia
Pain
Arachnophobia
Spiders
Astraphobia
Storms; thunder and lightning
Claustrophobia
Closed spaces; confinement
Hydrophobia
Water
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Nyctophobia
Darkness
Ophidiophobia
Snakes
Pyrophobia
Fire
Thanatophobia
Death
Xenophobia
Strangers
Causes of Phobias
Phobic disorders have been explained in several ways, according to the various models of
psychopathology. For example, the psychodynamic explanation of phobia is that the anxiety
expressed toward the phobic object or situation is actually displacement of an internal anxiety.
From this perspective, then, a snake phobia is more than a fear of snakes — it represents some
other underlying anxiety. The phobia is seen as having arisen because the patient lacks
understanding about this underlying anxiety and uses displacement as a defense mechanism.
Some evidence of a genetic predisposition for phobic disorder exists (Torgersen, 1983). First,
regarding incidence of behaviors that are relevant to the study of social phobia (such as eating
in public, being observed at work), monozygotic twins are more alike than dizygotic twins.
Second, parents of children who are diagnosed with a childhood phobic disorder are themselves
more likely to meet the criteria for this disorder. Although these findings suggest that the
pattern can be genetic or learned.
One model of the development of agoraphobia specifically includes cognitive and
behavioral processes
A case of agoraphobia.
Persons with agoraphobia hold biased emotional expectations; they expect
unwanted emotional arousal, are overly alert to cues that signal anxiety, and are
highly motivated to avoid anxiety- provoking stimuli.
In persons with agoraphobia, have an unwillingness to approach or to try to
master stressful situations is accompanied by a sense of loss of control.
Treating Phobias
Specific phobias have been successfully treated with systematic desensitization, where
anxiety is paired with relaxation with imagined (or real) scenes involving the client in anxietyproducing situations.
Systematic desensitization is a behavior therapy procedure developed by Joseph Wolpe (1995,
1982).where old maladaptive associations are replaced by newer, more adaptive ones.
Behavioral exposure treatments, both flooding and desensitization, do provide evidence of
clients’ newly acquired knowledge and ability to manage anxiety. As the clients come to
experience and accept the ability to cope with once-feared situations, self-efficacy increases and
remains with the clients as part of their newly acquired sense of mastery over prior phobia.
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To paraphrase a familiar maxim: Nothing succeeds like a belief in success.
Panic Disorder
The term panic originated with Pan, the Greek god who was said to be a happy but an ugly
man: He had the horns, ears, and legs of a goat. When in a bad mood, he enjoyed scaring away
travelers — hence the word panic (Ley, 1987). Experiences that may well be called panic have
been around for a long but it was not until recently that consistency in research findings and
clinical practice led to the identification of panic disorder as a separate type of anxiety disorder.
A person suffering from panic disorder is vulnerable to frequent panic attacks — discrete
instances of fear or discomfort. Panic attacks are unexpected in the sense that they do not occur
in a predictable context or immediately before a situation that almost always causes anxiety
reactions; they are not the result of evaluation of the person or of scrutiny by others. In
these ways, panic disorder is differentiated from specific phobia and social phobia, which do
involve situational determinants.
Who Is Affected with Panic Disorder? Panic attacks occur in panic disorder, but they are also
sometimes reported in patients with phobias, substance-abuse disorder, and mild depression. In
one study, researchers interviewed 1,306 residents of San Antonio, Texas, and found that 5.6
percent reported panic attacks, but only 3.8 percent met criteria for panic disorder.
Panic disorder in women typically occurs at more than twice the frequency of panic disorder in
men. However, research conducted in Australia determined that, in terms of symptoms, age of
onset, cognition, and duration, there are no significant differences between male and female
patients with panic attacks (Oei, Wanstall & Evans, 1990).
1. Palpitations pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate
2. Sweating
3. Trembling or shaking
4. Sensations of shortness of breath
5. Feeling of choking
6. Chest pain or discomfort,
7. Nausea or abdominal distress
8. Feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded,
9. Derealization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (feeling
detached from oneself)
10. Fear of losing control or going crazy
11. Fear of dying
12. Numbness or tingling sensations
13. Chills or hot flashes
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Source: Adapted from DSM-1V Reprinted with permission from The
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition,
Copyright @ 1994 American Psychiatric Association.
Are Panic Attacks Biological?
Are panic attacks specifically associated with biological
factors?
Proponents of a biological model cite studies showing that panic patients responded
distinctively to a variety of “challenges” they faced in the laboratory. Other proponents of a
biological model have suggested that patients with panic disorder have a dysfunctional heart.
Panic is a fear response to unexpected and unexplained somatic events (Clark, 1989). It is as if
changes in bodily functions that can’t be easily explained (such as a sudden change in
breathing) prompt the panic sufferer to anticipate the worst and to experience fear and panic
(see also McNally & Eke, 1996).
According to Clark (1986), misinterpretation of the arousal cues is causally linked to panic.
Thus, although persons with panic attack with a history of it and those without such a
history both experience similar arousal (as a result of, say, hyperventilation), only the subjects
with panic disorder view these physiological cues as indications that a catastrophe is
forthcoming. Somatic complaints precede the fear, and the somatic changes are frightening to
the panic sufferer.
In general, research has supported the idea that panic attacks result from the client’s fear
response to certain bodily sensations.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Have you ever found yourself humming a commercial jingle — a tune that stays in your mind
longer than you want it to? In a small way, this experience is like an obsession. Obsessions are
persistent and unwanted thoughts, ideas, or images that a person does not intentionally
produce. Rather, the unwanted thoughts are perceived as invading the person’s thinking. The
recurring thoughts are troublesome, unnecessary, and distracting, and the person tries to be rid
of them.
Features of OCD
The content and form of normal and abnormal obsessions are similar.
Abnormal obsessions, however, are more frequent, more intense, and of longer duration;
they produce more discomfort; and they are more associated with compulsions than are
normal obsessions.
Is heightened emotional intensity possibly an important aspect of the intrusive quality of
obsessions? (Clark & de Silva, 1985). The studies to date, using nonclinical cases, support
this hypothesis and suggest that reducing the frequency of any negative cognition will increase
the client’s ability to dismiss such thoughts. Although compulsions appear to be purposeful
behaviors, they are essentially nonfunctional and ritualistic. The compulsion reported most
often is checking, which results from pathologic doubt linked to repeated attempts to “make
sure”.
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An obsessive- compulsive person might fear that the front door was left unlocked and so
repeatedly return to the door to check that it is locked. Other common examples of compulsive
checking include repetitions intended to determine that gas and water taps are shut and lights
and appliances are off. Still other cases highlight a need for organization — checking that
kitchen utensils are properly aligned, cupboard contents are correctly arranged, and closets
are organized in the “right” order. Some common rituals include repeatedly putting clothes
on and taking them off; hoarding items such as newspapers, mail, or boxes; and repeating
certain actions such as going through a doorway.
Compulsive hand washing is linked to a preoccupation with dirt and contamination and may be
tinged with reports of disgust regarding urine and feces. Compulsive hand washers avoid
public restrooms, doorknobs, shaking hands, and money, all of which are viewed as
contaminated. Patients may wash as many as eighty times a day, often causing damage to their
skin.
Causes of OCD
Researchers have speculated that the obsessions and compulsions reflect fixed-action patterns
that are “wired” into the brain. When stressful conditions stimulate the person’s perception of
danger, these fixed action patterns may be inappropriately activated. Normal individuals cease
performing an action when their senses tell them that the action has been completed,
whereas, according to the theory just described, persons with OCD become helpless victims
of their repeating patterns. Example hand washing.
Treating OCD
The impatient friend of an obsessive person advises, “Just don’t think about it.” But the
person’s unwanted thoughts persist nonetheless.
The spouse of a compulsive checker shouts, “We’re going to be late. Stop that damn
checking.” But the checking continues. The experience of nonprofessionals is that obsessivecompulsive disorder is very resistant to direct instructions. Indeed, obsessive patients have
thought and thought about matters that they feel are major, and they frequently do not respond
to the suggestions of others. Compulsive persons, too, are said to be resistant to advice.
Treatment of OCD especially of chronic cases is difficult earlier the treatment begins the better
it is and when it is becomes chronic or it goes without any treatment for some time then
patient takes time to
respond
to
any
therapy.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Psychologically speaking, what is similar about the experiences of rape, torture, military
combat, airplane crash, earthquake, a disastrous fire, and the collapse of a large building? Each
can cause severe trauma. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a cluster of psychological
symptoms that can follow a psychologically distressing event. Stressors that produce PTSD
would produce marked distress in almost anyone, and they are outside the range of normal,
common stressors such as chronic illness, marital separation, or business failure. Although not
all disasters result in psychopathology (Rubonis & Bickman, 1991) — indeed, some people
seem invulnerable to the distress — certain individuals do develop severe disorders related to
trauma.
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The typical symptoms of PTSD occur following a recognizable stressor (traumatic event) that
has involved intense fear and horror. They include re-experiencing of the traumatic event,
persistent avoidance of any reminders of the event, numbing of general responsiveness, and
increased arousal. To warrant a diagnosis of PTSD, a client must experience these symptoms
for at least one month. Acute stress disorder, a recent addition to DSM, refers to PTSD-like
reactions that persist for at least two days but less than four weeks.
Who Is Affected with PTSD? According to recent epidemiological data (Kessler ,1995),
the estimated lifetime prevalence of PTSD is 7.8 percent. The trauma most commonly
associated with posttraumatic stress disorder among men is combat exposure, which is rated the
most upsetting trauma for 28.8 percent of men with PTSD. Among women, rape is most
commonly associated with PTSD; it is rated most upsetting by 29.9 percent of women with
PTSD. Fifty-eight percent of battered women also report high rates of PTSD (Astin, OglandHand, Coleman & Foy, 1995).
Military-combat-produced PTSD is not new; writers described its occurrence after the Civil
War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean War. Early reference was made to “shell shock” or
“battle fatigue” to refer to an array of symptoms seen in men whose military experience
included exposure to artillery fire, attack, and bombings. In the United States, the Centers for
Disease Control conducted a four-year epidemiological study of approximately 15,000
Vietnam veterans and reported that 15 percent suffered from combat-related PTSD since their
discharge (Roberts, 1988).
Catastrophes such as aircraft disasters, tornadoes, and fires can also produce widespread and
serious emotional problems. An aircraft crash at a major airport can cause emotional stress
reactions in any of the surviving passengers or flight crew as well as in witnesses to the crash,
in members of the families or work associates waiting for passengers to arrive, and in the
airport employees who are asked to assist in the emergency services and crash cleanup. Only
some of those involved actually suffer diagnosed PTSD or acute stress disorder, but case
reports nevertheless indicate widespread distress. After mobilizing energies and working
cooperatively during the immediate time of the emergency, people soon tire. When the event
has passed and is no longer the topic of conversation, people report loss of sleep, a reliving of
the experience, and fearful dreams.
Treating PTSD
The psychological treatment of clients with posttraumatic stress disorder has generated
interest and enthusiasm. The research literature is young, however, because PTSD did not
appear as an identifiable form of disorder until 1980. An early and practical first step was
Operation Outreach, a program designed specifically for Vietnam combat veterans. At
Operation Outreach, any veteran can find a needed outlet for his or her emotional distress.
An approach has proved effective in the management of PTSD among rape victims. Edna
Foa and her colleagues (1991) reported that a cognitive-behavioral treatment and a prolonged
exposure treatment (at follow-up) were more effective in reducing PTSD symptoms.
Many of the rape victims who were offered treatment declined to participate. This may be
related to rape victims’ tendency to avoid confrontation of the rape memory, a tendency that is
symptomatic of PTSD. In addition, some rape victims may not show symptoms of any disorder
or may not see themselves as patients in need of treatment.
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Nevertheless, cognitive-behavioral and exposure treatments seem to be helpful to PTSD
sufferers, whether veterans or rape victims.
CLASSIFYING AND TREATING ANXIETY DISORDERS
“Neuroses Are No Longer a Psychological Problem!” If such a headline had appeared in the
newspaper, it would have been technically accurate, because, the DSM IV TR system
abandoned the use of terms and categories related with neurosis. For example, phobic
neurosis is now called specific phobia or social phobia, and obsessive-compulsive neurosis
became obsessive- compulsive disorder.
Panic and anxiety combine to form different anxiety
disorders
1- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
2- panic with agoraphobia
3-Specific phobia
4- social phobia
5-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
6-Obessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Anxiety is very hard to study. In humans a sense of uneasiness, looking worried
and anxious. The physiological response of anxiety is reflected in increased heart
beat and muscle tension.
Anxiety is not pleasant; it is some unpleasant thing most commonly observed.
MOOD DISORDERS I
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MOOD DISORDERS are the most common psychological disorders and the risk of
developing them is increasing all over the world especially among the young people.
• It is really something which scares us.
• Mood or affective disorders are syndromes of depressions or a combination of
depression and mania.
• Normal mood depression which last for a few moments or hours.
• In depression there is altered energy level, motivation, behavior, bodily functioning
• Modification in sleep and eating patterns
• When these symptoms persist they greatly impair individual’s ability
•
At work and at home and relationships at both places.
• Unipolar depression
• Bipolar depressions
Depression is one of the most prevalent of all clinical disorders co-occurring with other
medical and psychological disorders.
• I have missed placed my important documents I am sad
• My car has been stolen I am pretty sad
• My purse has been snatched with all my money I am sad
• My student has lost her father in death she refuses to come to college
• All these are events which make an individual become sad but after some time we get
over them and move on.
• You do not encounter any such event but you are sad most of the day, irritable, tired,
your appetite and sleep patterns are irregular so you suffer from mood disorder.
• What is depression?
• A mood state.
• Why do we get depress?
• We think we are the only ones with this disorder
• What are the symptoms of depression?
• Emotional, cognitive and behavioral
• Give me one symptom of depression observed in most people
• Being isolated
• Alone
• Seclusion.
• Major depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide.
• Emotion refers subjective states of feeling, such as sadness, anger, and disgust.
• Affect refers to the pattern of observable behaviors, such as facial expression, that are
associated with these subjective feelings.
• Mood refers to a pervasive and sustained emotional response that, in its extreme form,
can color the person’s perception of the world.
• Depression can refer either to a mood or to a clinical syndrome, a combination of
emotional, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms.
• The feelings associated with a depressed mood often include disappointment and despair.
• Although sadness is a universal experience, profound depression is not.
• In the syndrome of depression, which is also called clinical depression, a depressed
mood is accompanied by symptoms, such as
• fatigue,
• loss of energy,
• difficulty in sleeping, and
• changes in appetite.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mania, the flip side of depression, also involves a disturbance in mood
that is accompanied by additional symptoms.
• Mania is an elated mood, is the opposite emotional state from a depressed mood.
• It is characterized by an exaggerated feeling of physical and emotional wellbeing.
Manic symptoms that frequently accompany an elated mood include
• inflated self-esteem,
• decreased need for sleep,
• distractibility,
• pressure to keep talking, and
• the subjective feeling of thoughts racing through the person’s head
faster than they can be spoken.
Mood disorders are defined in terms of episodes—discrete periods of time in which
the person’s behavior is dominated by either a depressed or manic mood.
Unipolar mood disorder is a mood disorder in which the person experiences only
episodes of depression.
Bipolar mood disorder is a mood disorder in which the person experiences episodes of
mania as well as depression.
Years ago, bipolar mood disorder was known as manic–depressive disorder.
Although this term has been replaced in the official diagnostic manual, some clinicians
still prefer to use it because it offers a more direct description of the patient’s experience.
Important Considerations in Distinguishing Clinical Depression from Normal Sadness
1. The mood change is pervasive across situations and persistent over time.
2. The mood change may occur in the absence of any precipitating events, or it may be
completely out of proportion to the person’s circumstances.
3. The depressed mood is accompanied by impaired ability to function in usual
social and occupational roles.
4. The change in mood is accompanied by a cluster of additional signs and symptoms,
including cognitive, somatic, and behavioral features.
5. The nature or quality of the mood change may be different from that associated
with normal sadness.
Emotional Symptoms
• Depressed, or dysphonic (unpleasant), mood is the most common and obvious
symptom of depression.
• In contrast to the unpleasant feelings associated with clinical depression, manic patients
experience periods of inexplicable and unbounded joy known as euphoria.
•
•
Many depressed and manic patients are irritable.
Anxiety is also common among people with mood disorders, just as depression is a
common feature of some anxiety disorders.
Cognitive Symptoms
• People who are clinically depressed frequently note that their thinking is slowed
down, that they have trouble concentrating, and that they are easily distracted.
• Guilt and worthlessness are common preoccupations.
• They focus considerable attention on the most negative features of themselves, their
environments, and the future—a combination known as the “depressive triad.”
• In contrast to the cognitive slowness associated with depression, manic patients
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•
•
•
•
commonly report that their thoughts are speeded up.
Manic patients can also be easily distracted, responding to seemingly random
stimuli in a completely uninterpretable and incoherent fashion.
Inflated self esteem is also characteristic features of mania.
Many people experience self-destructive ideas and impulses when they are depressed.
Interest in suicide usually develops gradually and may begin with the vague sense
that life is not worth living.
Somatic Symptoms
• The somatic symptoms of mood disorders are related to basic physiological or bodily
functions.
• They include fatigue, aches and pains, and serious changes in appetite and sleep patterns.
• Trouble getting to sleep is common.
• In the midst of a manic episode, a person is likely to experience a drastic reduction in
the need for sleep.
• Although some depressed patients report that they eat more than usual, most reduce
the amount that they eat; some may eat next to nothing.
• People who are severely depressed commonly lose their interest in various types of
activities that are otherwise sources of pleasure and fulfillment.
• Some patients complain of frequent headaches and muscular aches and pains.
Behavioral Symptoms
• The symptoms of mood disorders also include changes in the things that people do and
the rate at which they do them.
• The term psychomotor retardation refers to several features of behavior that may
accompany the onset of serious depression.
• The most obvious behavioral symptom of depression is slowed movement.
• Patients may walk and talk as if they are in slow motion.
• Others become completely immobile and may stop speaking altogether.
• Some depressed patients pause for much extended periods, perhaps several
minutes, before answering a question.
• In marked contrast to periods when they are depressed, manic patients are typically
gregarious and energetic.
Other Problems Commonly Associated with Depression
• Within the field of psychopathology, the simultaneous manifestation of a mood disorder
and other syndromes is referred to as comorbidity, suggesting that the person exhibits
symptoms of more
than one underlying disorder.
• Alcoholism and depression are clearly related phenomena.
• Eating disorders and anxiety disorders are also more common among first-degree
relatives of depressed patients than among people in the general population.
Brief Historical Perspective
• The first widely accepted classification system was proposed by the German
physician Emil
Kraepelin.
• Kraepelin divided the major forms of mental disorder into two categories: dementia
praecox, which we now know as schizophrenia, and manic–depressive psychosis.
• He based the distinction on age of onset, clinical symptoms, and the course of the
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disorder (its progress over time).
The manic–depressive category included all depressive syndromes, regardless of
whether the patients exhibited manic and depressive episodes or simply depression.
• In comparison to dementia praecox, manic–depression typically showed an episodic,
recurrent course with a relatively good prognosis.
• Despite the widespread acceptance and influence of Kraepelin’s diagnostic system,
many alternative approaches have been proposed.
• Two primary issues have been central in the debate regarding definitions of mood
disorders.
• First, should these disorders be defined in a broad or a narrow fashion?
• A narrow approach to the definition of depression would focus on the most severely
disturbed people—those whose depressed mood is entirely pervasive and associated
with a wide range of additional symptoms.
• A broader approach to definition would include mild depression, which lies
somewhere on the continuum between normal sadness and major depression.
• The second issue concerns heterogeneity.
• All depressed patients do not have exactly the same set of symptoms, the same pattern
of onset, or the same course over time.
• Are there qualitatively distinct forms of mood disorder, or are there different
expressions of the same underlying problem?
• Is the distinction among the different types simply one of severity?
•
Contemporary Diagnostic Systems
• The DSM-IV-TR approach to classify mood disorders recognizes several subtypes of
depression, placing special emphasis on the distinction between unipolar and bipolar
disorders.
• The overall scheme includes two types of unipolar mood disorder and three types of
bipolar mood disorder.
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Unipolar Disorders
• The unipolar disorders include two specific types: major depressive disorder and
dysthymia.
• In order to meet the criteria for major depressive disorder, a person must experience at
least one major depressive episode in the absence of any history of manic episodes.
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• Dysthymia differs from major depression in terms of both severity and duration.
• Dysthymia represents a chronic mild depressive condition that has been present for many
years.
• In order to fulfill DSM-IV-TR criteria for this disorder, the person must, over a period
of at least 2 years, exhibit a depressed mood for most of the day on more days than not.
Two or more of the following symptoms must also be present for a diagnosis of dysthymia:
1. Poor appetite or overeating
2. Insomnia or hypersomnia
3. Low energy or fatigue
4. Low self-esteem
5. Poor concentration or difficulty making decisions
6. Feelings of hopelessness
The distinction between major depressive disorder and dysthymia is somewhat artificial because
both sets of symptoms are frequently seen in the same person.
In such cases, rather than thinking of them as separate disorders, it is more appropriate to
consider them as two aspects of the same disorder, which waxes and wanes over time.
Bipolar Disorders
• All three types of bipolar disorders involve manic or hypomanic episodes.
• The mood disturbance must be severe enough to interfere with occupational or social
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functioning.
• A person who has experienced at least one manic episode would be assigned a diagnosis
of bipolar
I disorder.
• To be fully discussed in lecture no 27.
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MOOD DISORDERS II
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DIAGNOSIS Unipolar Disorders
• The unipolar disorders include two specific types: major depressive disorder and
dysthymia.
• In order to meet the criteria for major depressive disorder, a person must experience
at least one major depressive episode in the absence of any history of manic episodes.
• Dysthymia differs from major depression in terms of both severity and duration.
• Dysthymia represents a chronic mild depressive condition that has been present for
many years.
• In order to fulfill DSM-IV-TR criteria for this disorder, the person must, over a period
of at least 2 years, exhibit a depressed mood for most of the day on more days than not.
• Two or more of the following symptoms must also be present for a diagnosis of
dysthymia:
1. Poor appetite or overeating
2. Insomnia or hypersomnia
3. Low energy or fatigue
4. Low self-esteem
5. Poor concentration or difficulty making decisions
6. Feelings of hopelessness
• These symptoms must not be absent for more than 2 months at a time during the 2-year
period.
• If at any time during the initial 2 years the person met criteria for a major depressive
episode, the diagnosis would be major depression rather than dysthymia.
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•
As in the case of major depressive disorder, the presence of a manic episode would
rule out a diagnosis of dysthymia.
•
The distinction between major depressive disorder and dysthymia is somewhat
artificial because both sets of symptoms are frequently seen in the same person.
• In such cases, rather than thinking of them as separate disorders, it is more appropriate
to consider them as two aspects of the same disorder, which waxes and wanes over
time.
Bipolar Disorders
• All three types of bipolar disorders involve manic or hypomanic episodes.
• The mood disturbance must be severe enough to interfere with occupational or social
functioning.
• A person who has experienced at least one manic episode would be assigned a
diagnosis of bipolar
I disorder.
•
•
•
•
Hypomania refers to episodes of increased energy that are not sufficiently severe to
qualify as full- blown mania.
A person who has experienced at least one major depressive episode, at least one
hypomanic episode, and no full-blown manic episodes would be assigned a diagnosis
of bipolar II disorder.
The differences between manic and hypomanic episodes involve duration and severity.
The symptoms need to be present for a minimum of only 4 days to meet the
threshold for a hypomanic episode (as opposed to 1 week for a manic episode).
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•
The mood change in a hypomanic episode must be noticeable to others, but the
disturbance must not be severe enough to impair social or occupational functioning or
to require hospitalization.
•
Cyclothymia is considered by DSM-IV-TR to be a chronic but less severe form
of bipolar disorder.
• In order to meet criteria for cyclothymia, the person must experience numerous
hypomanic episodes and numerous periods of depression (or loss of interest or
pleasure) during a period of 2years.
• There must be no history of major depressive episodes and no clear evidence of a
manic episode during the first 2 years of the disturbance.
Further Descriptions and Subtypes
• DSM-IV-TR includes several additional ways of describing subtypes of the mood
disorders.
• These are based on two considerations:
1) more specific descriptions of symptoms that were present during the most
recent episode
of depression (known as episode specifiers) and
2) more extensive descriptions of the pattern that the disorder follows over time
(known as
course specifiers).
•
One episode specifier allows the clinician to describe a major depressive
episode as having melancholic features.
• Melancholia is a term that is used to describe a particularly severe type of depression.
• In order to meet the DSM-IV-TR criteria for melancholic features, a depressed patient
must either
• lose the feeling of pleasure associated with all, or almost all, activities or
• Lose the capacity to feel better—even temporarily—when something good happens.
• The person must also exhibit at least three of the following to meet the criteria of
melancholia:
• the depressed mood feels distinctly different from the depression a person would
feel after the death of a loved one;
• the depression is most often worst in the morning;
• the person awakens early, at least 2 hours before usual;
• marked psychomotor retardation or agitation;
• significant loss of appetite or weight loss; and
• excessive or inappropriate guilt.
• Another episode specifier allows the clinician to indicate the presence of
psychotic features—
hallucinations or delusions—during the most recent episode of depression or mania.
• Depressed patients who exhibit psychotic features are more likely to require
hospitalization and treatment with a combination of antidepressant and antipsychotic
medication.
• Another episode specifier applies to women who become depressed or manic following
pregnancy.
• A major depressive or manic episode can be specified as having a postpartum onset if it
begins within
4 weeks after childbirth.
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•
•
•
Because the woman must meet the full criteria for an episode of major depression or
mania, this category does not include minor periods of postpartum “blues,” which are
relatively common.
A mood disorder (either unipolar or bipolar) is described as following a seasonal
pattern if, over a period of time, there is a regular relationship between the onset
of a person’s episodes and particular times of the year.
Researchers refer to a mood disorder in which the onset of episodes is regularly
associated with changes in seasons as seasonal affective disorder.
Unipolar Disorders
• People with unipolar mood disorders typically have their first episode in middle age;
the average age of onset is in the mid-forties.
• DSM-IV-TR sets the minimum duration at 2 weeks, but they can last much longer.
• In one large-scale follow-up study, 10 percent of the patients had depressive
episodes that lasted more than 2 years.
• Most unipolar patients will have at least two depressive episodes.
• The mean number of lifetime episodes is five or six.
• When a person’s symptoms are diminished or improved, the disorder is considered
to be in remission, or a period of recovery.
• Relapse is a return of active symptoms in a person who has recovered from a previous
episode.
• Approximately half of all unipolar patients recover within 6 months of the beginning of
an episode.
• The probability that a patient will recover from an episode decreases after 6 months,
and 10 to 20 percent do not recover after 5 years.
• Among those who recover, 50 percent relapse within 3 years.
Bipolar Disorders
• Onset of bipolar mood disorders usually occurs between the ages of 28 and 33
years, which is younger than the average age of onset for unipolar disorders.
• The first episode is just as likely to be manic as depressive.
• The average duration of a manic episode runs between 2 and 3 months.
• The long-term course of bipolar disorders is most often episodic, and the prognosis is
mixed.
• Most patients have more than one episode, and bipolar patients tend to have more
episodes than unipolar patients.
• Several studies that have followed bipolar patients over periods of up to 10 years have
found that
40 to 50 percent of patients are able to achieve a sustained recovery from the disorder.
Incidence and Prevalence
• Unipolar depression is one of the most common forms of psychopathology.
• Among people who were interviewed for the ECA study, approximately 6 percent
were suffering from a diagnosable mood disorder during a period of 6 months.
• The ratio of unipolar to bipolar disorders is at least 5:1.
• Lifetime risk for major depressive disorder was approximately 5 percent, averaged
across sites in the ECA program.
• The lifetime risk for dysthymia was approximately 3 percent and the lifetime risk
for bipolar I
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•
•
•
disorder was close to 1 percent.
Almost half the people who met diagnostic criteria for dysthymia had also
experienced an episode of major depression at some point in their lives.
The National Comorbidity Survey produced even higher figures for the lifetime
prevalence of mood disorders; therefore the prevalence estimates for mood disorders
in the ECA study are probably conservative.
Slightly more than 30 percent of those people in the ECA study who met diagnostic
criteria for a mood disorder made contact with a mental health professional during the
6 months prior to their interview.
Gender Differences
• Women are two or three times more vulnerable to depression than men are.
• The increased prevalence of depression among women is apparently limited to unipolar
disorders.
• Possible explanations for this gender difference have focused on a variety of factors,
including sex hormones, stressful life events, and childhood adversity as well as
response styles that are
associated with gender roles.
Cross-Cultural Differences
• Comparisons of emotional expression and emotional disorder across cultural
boundaries encounter a number of methodological problems.
• One problem involves vocabulary.
• Cross-cultural differences have been confirmed by a number of research projects
that have examined cultural variations in symptoms among depressed patients in
different countries.
• These studies report comparable overall frequencies of mood disorders in various
parts of the world, but the specific type of symptom expressed by the patients varies
from one culture to the next.
• In Chinese patients, depression is more likely to be described in terms of somatic
symptoms, such as sleeping problems, headaches, and loss of energy.
• Depressed patients in Europe and North America are more likely to express feelings
of guilt and suicidal ideas.
• These cross-cultural comparisons suggest that, at its most basic level, clinical
depression is a universal phenomenon that is not limited to Western or urban societies.
• They also indicate that a person’s cultural experiences, including linguistic,
educational, and social factors, may play an important role in shaping the manner in
which he or she expresses and copes
with the anguish of depression.
Risk for Mood Disorders Across the Life Span
• Data from the ECA project suggest that mood disorders are most frequent among
young and middle-aged adults.
• Prevalence rates for major depressive disorder and dysthymia were significantly
lower for people over the age of 65.
• The frequency of bipolar disorders was also low in the oldest age groups.
• The frequency of depression is much higher among certain subgroups of elderly people.
• The prevalence of depression is particularly high among those who are about to enter
residential care facilities.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Elderly people in nursing homes are more likely to be depressed in comparison to a
random sample of elderly people living in the community.
People born after World War II seem to be more likely to develop mood disorders
than were people from previous generations.
The average age of onset for clinical depression also seems to be lower in people
who were born more recently; a pattern sometimes called a birth cohort trend.
At low levels and over brief periods of time, depressed mood may help us refocus our
motivations and it may help us to conserve and redirect our energy in response to
experiences of loss and
defeat.
A disorder that is as common as depression must have many causes rather than one.
The principle of equifinality, which holds that there are many ways to reach the
same outcome, clearly applies in the case of mood disorders.
Social Factors
• The experience of stressful life events is associated with an increased probability that
a person will become depressed.
• Prospective studies have found that stressful life events are useful in predicting the
subsequent onset of unipolar depression.
• Although many kinds of negative events are associated with depression, a
special class of circumstances—those involving major losses of important people or
roles—seem to play a crucial
role in precipitating unipolar depression.
•
•
Brown and his colleagues believe that depression is more likely to occur when severe
life events are associated with feelings of humiliation, entrapment, and defeat.
Variations in the overall prevalence of depression are driven in large part by social
factors that influence the frequency of stress in the community.
Social Factors and Bipolar Disorders
• Some studies have found that the weeks preceding the onset of a manic episode are
marked by an increased frequency of stressful life events.
• The kinds of events that precede the onset of mania tend to be different from those
that lead to depression.
• While the latter include primarily negative experiences involving loss and low
self-esteem, the former include schedule-disrupting events (such as loss of sleep) as
well as goal attainment events.
•
Some patients experience an increase in manic symptoms after they have achieved a
significant goal toward which they had been working.
• Aversive patterns of emotional expression and communication within the family can
also have a negative impact on the adjustment of people with bipolar mood disorders.
•
Bipolar patients who have less social support are more likely to relapse and recover
more slowly than patients with higher levels of social support.
• Stressful life events can also delay recovery from an episode of depression in bipolar
patients.
• The course of bipolar mood disorder can be influenced by the social environment in
which the person is living.
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